Commissure Attachments for Prosthetic Heart Valves

Valve replacement devices for minimally invasive heart valve replacement that can be compressed for delivery through small incisions and expanded in place. The devices have a radially compressible stent and tissue valve components. The stent has commissural posts with tabs attached to the valve leaflets. The valve leaflets are made of thin pericardium tissue. The compact size enables transvascular or transapical delivery. The valve components are secured inside the stent for compression. The valve tabs attach to the stent posts when expanded. The inner skirt wraps the stent conical section and outer skirt extends outside the stent. The compressed device fits in a delivery catheter for implantation.

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Collapsible transcatheter heart valve with a frame design to prevent leaflet abrasion during valve operation. The frame has inwardly extending commissure attachment posts to secure the leaflet commissures. This allows the leaflet moveable portions to be spaced inwardly from the frame inner surface when open, protecting them from contact. This prevents premature wear and failure of the leaflets. The compressed commissure attachment posts initially clamp the commissures during implantation but remain deflected inwardly.

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A prosthetic mitral valve designed for minimally invasive implantation that closely matches the native mitral valve geometry. The valve has an expandable frame with flared ventricular and atrial anchors that compress the native tissue. The frame has slots for the leaflets to attach. Commissure plates with sutures secure the leaflet arms. Retention hooks on the ventricular anchor prevent dislodging. The frame self-expands to the implant size. The leaflets have protective covers.

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Prosthetic heart valve design with reduced stress on the leaflets to improve durability. The valve has a collapsible and expandable stent with features that indirectly attach the leaflets to reduce stress compared to directly attaching them. The attachment features are rectangular structures with a central aperture. A fabric is folded over the top strut and sutured through the aperture to connect the inner and outer layers. The fabric extends around side struts for some attachment features. This indirect attachment reduces stress on the leaflets during loading compared to direct attachment.

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Anchoring a medical device like a heart valve replacement using tether attachment members that have locking mechanisms to secure the tethers without piercing tissue. The tether attachment members have channels through which the valve tethers pass. A locking pin inside the channel can move to engage the tether and secure it. This allows easy insertion of the tether and then locking it in place without piercing tissue like staples. The locking pins can be actuated to move in and out of the channel. The tether attachment members can be positioned adjacent to puncture sites in the heart wall to anchor the valve tethers and close the punctures.

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A lightweight, single-piece device for fixing cardiac valve leaflets to treat regurgitation. The device has a biased, closed configuration where tissue engaging surfaces are held adjacent by a force sufficient to grasp leaflets. A delivery tool with spreaders can translate the surfaces between open and closed to capture leaflets. The single-piece design reduces weight and components compared to multi-part devices. The device's shape memory bias force enables secure leaflet fixation without excess weight.

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Tissue anchors for cardiac valve repair that have features for easier delivery, improved anchoring, and visual confirmation of successful implantation. The anchors have shaped eyelets for sliding along wires/sutures during delivery, spacers to compress during implantation, and heads that deform to indicate successful anchoring. The spacers prevent excess wire/suture from protruding and the heads compress against the tissue. The eyelets have tapered sections to slide smoothly along wires/sutures when aligned and orthogonal. The anchors can also have locking mechanisms to secure the sutures after annuloplasty.

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A suture lock assembly for securing sutures during implantation of medical devices like prosthetic heart valves. The assembly has a tensioner that can rotate to gather suture length. It also has a quick release mechanism to lock and unlock the suture end. This allows sutures to be securely tightened, then released for easy removal after device implantation. The assembly is integrated into the delivery apparatus for the implantable device.

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Anchoring device and system for securing a prosthetic heart valve to tissue without the need for sutures. The anchoring device consists of a surgical anchor with a distal tip to pierce tissue and a proximal head to engage the valve. The anchor is deployed through the valve into adjacent tissue, then the head is brought into contact with the valve to approximate it. Tension in the anchor pulls the valve into place. The system uses a deployment device with rotating arms to drive anchors into tissue. The valve itself has malleable inflow cells, rigid annular cells, and rigid leaflet posts to allow tissue ingrowth.

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Device and method for securing a prosthetic heart valve at a native valve like the mitral valve. The device is an expandable anchor with a lower portion in the ventricle and an upper portion in the atrium. The lower portion clamps the leaflets using protrusions. The upper portion supports the atrium. The prosthetic valve is inserted inside the native valve and expanded to clamp against the lower anchor. This fixes the prosthetic valve in place without compressing the native annulus.

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Expandable prosthetic heart valves that better secure to and remodel the valve annulus to improve performance compared to traditional expandable valves. The valves have anchors that engage surrounding tissue when deployed. These anchors can be separate components or integrated into the valve body. They pull inward during valve expansion to constrict the annulus. This reduces the valve size and pulls the annulus tissue inward as well. The anchors can also be constricted separately using external mechanisms. The valve construction allows treating large annuli with fewer valve sizes and reducing device profile.

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Prosthetic heart valves with improved sealing and anchoring to native valves, particularly for minimally invasive implantation. The valves have features like radial flanges, conformable structures, offset sealing sections, and distal anchor configurations to better match irregular native valves and promote sealing and anchoring. They can also have docking mechanisms to simplify implantation. The valves can be delivered through smaller incisions compared to open heart surgery.

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A locking ferrule with a one-way locking mechanism for tensionable knotless cardiac valve procedures. The ferrule has a cannulation with locking barbs that engage a suture after it is passed through. This allows tensioning the suture in one direction and then locking it in place to prevent movement. It enables securing sutures in cardiac valve procedures without knots for tensioning and stabilization. The ferrule can be loaded with a suture and then moved to the valve tissue where it is tensioned and locked in place.

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Minimally invasive procedure to reshape heart valves and subvalvular tissue using a multi-opening guide catheter. The catheter has multiple openings spaced closely together. An anchor with a tether attaches to the heart tissue through one opening. The catheter then releases the tether to secure the anchor in place. This allows multiple anchors to be delivered and positioned through the closely spaced openings. The catheter holds the tethers during delivery and release. This stabilizes the device during implantation compared to openings far apart where the tethers would swing freely.

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A low profile, balloon expandable artificial prosthetic aortic valve for transcatheter implantation that aims to address some limitations of current transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices. The valve design involves a cylindrical frame with a cuff made of a polymer material that is integrally attached to the frame. The cuff covers the frame both inside and outside in the supporting section. This provides a one-piece construction that eliminates the need for separate leaflets, commissure masts, or sewing steps to attach the leaflets to the frame. It aims to simplify the valve design, reduce manufacturing time and cost, and potentially improve durability compared to using separate leaflets and sewing them to the frame.

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A prosthetic heart valve system with reduced stress on the leaflets during operation to improve durability. The valve system has a unique attachment method between the leaflets, cuffs, stents, buffers, and commissure features to reduce stresses in the leaflet material. This involves folding the leaflet attachment regions adjacent to the commissure attachment features to allow stress reduction, redistribution, and dampening during valve operation. This helps prevent leaflet tearing and failure over time due to the high stresses encountered during valve opening and closing.

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Expandable prosthetic heart valves with outer skirts that reduce push forces during implantation through delivery sheaths. The skirts have axially extending portions covering commissures at the valve outflow end. This provides a smoother surface at the outflow for easier delivery through vessels. The skirts also seal against native tissue upon expansion. The skirts can have features like tapered extensions, stitch lines, and wrapping around inflow struts to facilitate delivery and reduce paravalvular leakage.

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Reducing stress on leaflets of transcatheter heart valves to improve durability and longevity by allowing deflection at attachment points. The technique involves using patches, billowing patches, or flexible intermediate materials between the leaflets, cuffs, and stents to enable localized movement of the leaflets during valve operation. This reduces stress concentrations in high-stress regions like commissures, preventing leaflet damage and failure over time.

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Heart valve prosthesis to reduce thrombus formation by using a capsule connected to the stent that expands and collapses around the commissure points between the artificial valve leaflets. The capsule has a gap facing the outflow end. When the valve opens, the capsule is collapsed, allowing full blood flow. When the valve closes, the capsule expands around the leaflet commissures to seal, preventing blood flow stagnation and thrombus formation.

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Manufacturing prosthetic heart valve that reduces the strain placed on the valve assembly without affecting the prosthetic heart valve's ability to collapse. The valve includes a commissure attachment feature that extends in the medial direction of a stent for coupling a valve assembly to the stent.

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